Big Sur (big s<strike>u</strike>r) 1. The hairpin
curvature of California’s crooked
spine, south of Monterey. 2. Home
to the Lone Cypress, which has pondered
suicide for two hundred years, feet clutching
bare rock as lace unravels below in fury.
3. Where cars ladle into bowls of gray,
gray fog in December, all sound
distorted as if the ocean had leapt out
of its bounds to follow the mountains
toward the moon. 4. The state of mind achieved
through meditation. 5. “That same prehistoric
look. The look of always.” —Henry Miller.
6. Young, green mountains whose songs
are translated through artisans’ hands
and shutters. 7. Nature’s narcissism.
—ANT. see EIGHTH DEADLY SIN

eighth deadly sin (âtth ded'lç sin) n. 1. A rush
through the central coastal region
with no intention of yielding to the fog,
with no care for the gravity of the winding
Pacific Coast Highway. 2. The idea that gravity
is nothing more than a physical fall.